Escaping Matrimony

Antonio T. Bly’s Escaping Matrimony is a remarkable example of the power of social history to unlock the voices of ordinary women and men. Pulling together a seemingly disparate collection of newspaper ads and flyers, Bly provides the reader with a new understanding of 18th marital discord, the always unstable balance of power between wife and husband, and the way in which assumptions of masculine and feminine roles present themselves in the public display of marital grievances. At the same time, this rich collection of “elopement documents” reveals the role these announcements played in creating and sustaining a community ethos. Scholars of the 18th century will welcome this treasure trove of primary sources. -- Carol Berkin, Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY
Michel de Montaigne, understanding the value of primary documents, complained that historians sometimes ruin history because they “chew our meat for us.” Professor Antonio T. Bly’s spectacular book permits people not only to chew but also to digest valuable if often underappreciated advertisements describing wives who abandoned their husbands in early America. The delightful introduction is wide ranging, encompassing topics from domestic marital disagreements to emerging political conflicts between the colonies and Great Britain. The volume is a very rich and entertaining source for scholars, genealogists, and students alike. -- Billy G. Smith, Montana State University
This fascinating collection of ads—compiled here for the first time—illuminates in remarkable ways the jagged edges of thousands of broken marriages in early America and the unhappy women and men in them. These newspaper notices of eloping spouses form a rich resource for students, scholars, and indeed anyone interested in the intimate politics and fraught history of American marriage, families, and households. -- Sarah M.S. Pearsall, Johns Hopkins University